During the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) 2015 meeting on Jeju Island, South Korea, Professor Rokhmin Dahuri, a former Indonesia Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) minister and advisor to Indonesian President Jokowi, gave a speech on the potential and challenges of aquaculture development in Indonesia. He highlighted that since 2003, the MMAF has stipulated top species priorities for aquaculture development, including grouper, sea bass, pompano, milkfish (marine fishes), vannamei and black tiger prawn (crustacea), and tilapia, Pangasius and catfish (freshwater fishes).

Professor Dahuri said that Indonesia could lead world aquaculture production in 2025, since China, which is the current leader, has reached its maximum production due to limited carrying capacity. Indonesia has enormous resources for coastal and marine aquaculture development.  He estimated that economically important marine fish production such as grouper and sea bass would double in the next five years, and vannamei production would grow six percent per annum.
Increasing fishmeal prices are inevitable and are impacting aquafeed prices. The production of domestically consumed fishes such as carp, catfish, and gourami will highly rely on homemade, low quality feed. However, production of high value marine fishes and vannamei will continue to expand and will require large volume of high quality protein, such as U.S. soybean meal, in the future. Steadily increasing fishmeal prices and pressures from marine conservationist provide USSEC with a good opportunity to promote soy for aquafeed, particularly for marine fish and shrimp feed.